Tag Archives: Records

Not just a warm Holiday for some in the East, but a record warm Christmas Holiday. This is just a sample of the hundreds of record high temperatures that have been set across the eastern half of the nation in recent weeks. Some locations like New York’s Central Park set a high temperature record on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Albany New York was 15 degrees warmer than any other Christmas Eve on record and Burlington Vermont was 17 degrees warmer than the previous record. In places like Vermont, where a White Christmas is expected, temperatures nearly 40 degrees above normal are not only noticeable but crippling to the ski and winter industries. Ice and snow just don’t hold up to temps in the 60s and lower 70s.

The unusually warm weather not only set records, but also set the stage for several rounds of deadly severe weather. Several fatalities occurred across Mississippi and Tennessee from a long track EF-3 tornado on Wednesday the 23rd. An EF-2 tornado struck a Birmingham suburb on Christmas Day. Damage was significant but no fatalities occurred. A new storm system on the 26th was still able to take advantage of the unusually warm weather. An EF-4 steamrolled the Dallas suburb of Garland killing eight in the early evening hours.

Brief review of Holiday severe weather:

December 23, 2015, …10 fatalities were reported in Mississippi, six were killed in Tennessee. One tornado producing thunderstorm tracked 145 miles from the Mississippi River across the state and into Tennessee killing 7. Other fatalities occurred due to tornadoes, straight-lines winds and flooding.

December 26, 2015, …11 died in Texas after several tornadoes were reported in the Dallas area. In Garland, a suburb of Dallas, eight people died Saturday from an EF-4 tornado, three others died in Collin County just to the north.

In contrast, the Cascades of Oregon looked quite wintry on the Holiday. Below are images from last Christmas, this Christmas and June 1st.

The Steel Visitors Center Crater at Lake National Park on Christmas Day 2014.

The Steel Visitors Center Crater at Lake National Park on Christmas Day 2015.

At 7050 feet the snow depth listed for Christmas Day 2015 was 111 inches, or a little over 9 feet. That is a full size van parked back left and the snow banks are well above.

The Steel Visitors Center Crater at Lake National Park on June 01, 2014. Even in a drought year the snow cover lingers until June.

Just to show anyway you look at it, Crater Lake was buried for this Holiday. A series of West Coast storms have left there mark on the mountains of the West.

Learn more in my latest e-book El Niño: The WILD side of the weather cycle…What we know, what we don’t, and WHY you should care!

I show how this years Pacific water temperatures compare to the 1982 and 1997 events and highlight the kind of weather episodes that these stronger El Niño’s tend to bring.